China Stock Market Crashes When Michigan Governor Snyder Visits

Michigan residents fear China market tumble will affect their own finances.

"Oh - This not good"

Last week around the 21st of August, governor Snyder left Michigan to visit China, and immediately after his arrival the China stock market crashed in spectacular fashion. How big was China’s stock market crash? It's been dubbed “Black Monday” - August 24th ending with Chinese equities down 8.5%, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars in market capitalisation.

Was Snyder's visit and the Chinese market crash a coincidence? Probably. Well sure, of course. But it got me thinking. If governor Snyder

I Hope The Highway Trust Fund Bill in Washington Fails

Did you know that the Highway Trust Fund runs out of money on July 31st ? This will cause construction on transportation projects across the country to grind to a halt.

The Highway Trust Fund is a transportation fund in the United States which receives money from a federal fuel tax of 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel fuel and related excise taxes. In part the Fund provides money to states which funds road construction and repair. It was established in 1956 to finance the United States Interstate Highway System and certain other roads.

Well I think I hope it does run out. That they do NOT pass it. But let me explain...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate inched forward Friday on a $45 billion, three-year bill to fund the nation's highways, bridges and roads -- one week before all funding runs out. Senators voted 51-26 on a procedural motion that puts the bill one step closer to final passage. - Jennifer Bendery White House and congressional reporter, The Huffington Post, 07/24/2015

Now what would Lansing lawmakers say if the Highway Bill failed in Washington D.C. and the funds it provides to Michigan stopped flowing to our road projects? Would they complain that the Reps in D.C. are 'not doing their job' by failing to get Michigan their share of federal money for roads ? Would they cry and complain like babies?

Well probably yes. At first. But then I think this might happen.

Our hired help in Lansing might stop to remind themselves that their job is, in part, to fulfill the requirements of the Michigan State Constitution. That hallowed document in part states that it is their sworn duty to 'keep Michigan roads in reasonable repair'. Then they might take note of a recent study that shows more than half of Detroit, Flint and Grand Rapids' roads are in poor condition, even dangerous. This study was put together by the transportation research group TRIP. That makes Michigan roads, the roads they are responsible for, some of the worst in the nation!

And to move things along in Washington, they may draft a letter to Congress urging them to act appropriately and approve funding of the Highway Bill for future years, so Michigan can keep it's roads in safe and 'reasonable repair'. Just like the Michigan constitution requires.

They may come to understand and empathize with the struggle Michigan drivers have dealing with the repair costs associated with Michigan's crumbling roads. These costs affect motorists in Detroit, Flint and Grand Rapids who pay over $800 in additional annual upkeep because of poor road conditions. Lansing drivers paying an extra $733 annual extra vehicle operating cost and Ann Arbor drivers forking out up to $571 in annual repair bills.

And at last our noble Michigan legislators might come to realize the hypocrisy of their own actions over the last several years, specifically their inaction to fund our own road repairs, and make the lofty decision to come together in a show of bi-partisanship and compromise and finally levy the needed taxes, make the budget changes and do whatever is necessary to finally make Michigan roads not the Worst In The Nation, but the most envied in the nation. An admirable goal for the state which is the cradle of the worlds greatest automobile industry.

Naaaww - Who am I kidding! I hope the Highway Trust Fund extension bill passes in congress and we get our needed federal road money. Because nothing will change in Lansing. Our Michigan lawmakers are useless and they have proved it. Under their leadership, or lack thereof, Michigan ranks second to last in state per-capita spending on roads and will continue in that ranking because Michigan legislators that are as lousy at their job as our roads.

And that's why I hope the Highway Trust Find bill passes.

Drive Careful,
Will

Don't forget to get your "Fix Our Roads" bumper sticker!

If you already have one then get another.Some of our state representatives are slow readers.

Road Kill News: Vol. II

Here are some of the topics I noticed being discussed and/or of interested to you if you are interested in fixing Michigan's roads. If you are not interested in fixing Michigan's roads, here is a link to the Comics Web Page :-)

Pothole not to blame for deadly New Hudson Crash - According to Oakland County Sheriff - Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press

Not so sure of the validity of this "investigation". You read it and see what you think.

Michigan's crummy roads cartoon gallery! - Mike Thompson, Detroit Free Press

Really Funny - Really Real.

Editorial: House plan falls short, but offers some hope. - The Detroit News

This plan has now passed with some changes. It was so popular and had so much support in the senate that a Tie Breaker had to be called in to get it off it's ass and out the door!

'Pure Michigan' on its third leader in less than a year after resignation - MLive web site

Not sure what "Pure Michigan" is doing lately for our roads. But if you ask around, a lot of people here and in most other states think of "Lousy Roads" when they think of "Pure Michigan"! I'd resign too.

Michigan roads, politicians and Independence Day - MLive web site

Just because it mentions lousy Michigan roads. And I left a comment on it.

Be Sure to Come Back Next Week for more...

Drive Careful,
Will

Michigan House Votes To Use Forced Labor To Fix Roads ?

If someone takes something from you without your permission what might you call that? Steeling?

If you were told you must work and someone else will get the money even though you do not wish it, how would you feel? Like you were forced?

Some 3/4 Million Michigan tax payers will be forced to fix the roads, whether they like it or not, by working more hours without actually receiving pay in their pockets for the work they do. And the majority of the Michigan house of representatives is all for it. What? Let me try to explain.

Here is what I have read:

"House Republicans voted this week to eliminate the earned income tax credit as part of a plan to spend more on road improvements. Senate Republicans may follow suit this summer." - Oakland Press

The Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit (EIT) Democrats and others say, is the state credit which helps low-income people pay their bills and buy necessities. About 780,000 qualifying Michigan taxpayers received an average credit worth $140 last year. People who need this credit use the money not for luxuries, but for necessities, like food for their kids. Republicans want to use that money to fix our roads instead.

Fix The Roads - Are We There Yet?

Will this republican plan hurt people in Michigan?

For people earning minimum wage, that might amount to 2 or more days of work. Work which will now be paid, not to them, but to the state to 'Fix The Roads'!

If they do not wish to do that, some feel that may amount to Forced Labor. What do you think?
 
Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof thinks it is a small thing and supports it.

Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof tells The Associated Press he supports ending the tax credit and so does a majority of his caucus. He says it’s a small credit compared to a larger federal credit. - Oakland Press

And in addition, while republicans exist in office to a large extent off the mantra 'no new taxes' and 'lower all taxes', their vote to completely remove the Michigan EIT is in essence a raise in taxes for those that currently claim it.

Increase taxes on poor?
'Nothing is off the table' - Arlan Meekhof

Is this republican proposal impractical, ignorant or just plain mean spirited? My hope is it simply will not fly and a Real Plan to Fix Our Roads will be put forward by the legislature. However like the Bible says; 'hope is the expectation of things not beheld'. I hope but I just don't see it.

Thanks for taking a look at this, my opinion. Please tell me what you think.

Drive Careful,
Will

The All New Michigan Road Kill News

Here it is. It might be Dead. It might Stink.
Or it might be good for something. You decide for yourself.

I get my news in a lot of ways from a lot of places. Print, Internet, Friends and People I Meet.

When it comes to news about the roads I pretty much pick up everything I can. I am very concerned about the condition of the roads in Michigan, that's one reason why I write this blog. The truth is most of the news about the roads in Michigan nowadays is worthless. Just repeated prattle from some congressman / lawmaker, or a journalist trying to fill some space .

A lot of the news about the roads includes some study about this or that, trying to prove some persons point of view one way or the other. I've seen studies and polls printed barely one day apart painting a complete opposite picture about the exact same subject.

And I l have heard politicians talk about infrastructure and our roads in Michigan, either completely uninformed on the subject, or being outright deceitful, just to look good in front of the reporters and their constituents.

Needless to say all that is time consuming and tiring. So I've decided to start more or less a regular post entitled "Roadkill News". Now there are jokes about things like the "Roadkill Cafe" or people picking up roadkill to bring it home for dinner. True story: I once told a co-worker about a dear that had been hit right across the street from my house. That evening he followed me home, asked me to help him put the deer in the back of his pickup truck, told me his butcher should be able to get good meat out of about half of the poor dead thing. It wasn't just a few days later he was offering me some deer jerky, you guessed it, from that road kill at the end of my driveway. I didn't eat it. With "Roadkill News", you don't have to eat it if you don't want to either.

"Roadkill News" is a lot like what it sounds like. Some of its Stinks, some of it might be good for something. So as a favor to you folks , whether you like it or not I'll put up as much of the news about the roads as I can find, kind of like just the headlines and a quick description. Stick it in the back of my pickup truck so to speak and drop it off here so you can sift through it in a hurry and decide which of it is any good and worth reading. Nothing fancy just headlines with links to the articles and web pages, and a few words. But don't worry, I'll still be getting into detail about the road news that really does mean something and needs to be talked about.



So here is some bits of news I've picked up on the roads, off the roads in the last couple of days.

Low-income tax credit eyed for road funding - Michigan Public Radio

By Rick Pluta • Jun 2, 2015

A state House panel considers elimination of the tax credit for working poor  families to help come up with more money for roads. That's right. Fix the roads by grabbing money out of the pocket of the working poor. Put those people to work. They don't have enough to do already.

Safe Roads Yes on Facebook.
Safe Roads Yes! Website

As of the 1st of June, the Safe Roads Yes! coalition continues to urge us to "Get out and vote YES on Proposal 1" - on Facebook and the Safe Roads Yes! web site. REALLY!

 

Take the Free Press Pothole Challenge - By Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press, March 9, 2015

The Detroit Free Press wants to see (and share) what you think is the worst pothole or stretch of potholes across Michigan. You can share your photos and videos on one of the Freep's social media channels. Just can't seem to make up my mind, so many potholes...so many potholes.

 

Highway Trust Fund Is 'Broke,' Ex-Transportation Secretary LaHood Says - STEVE INSKEEP, National Public Radio. May 19, 2015

The primary way that federal highway and transit programs are funded for state, local, and national projects across the country is running out of money for highways, bridges and mass transit. Not good for our Michigan roads, seeing we can't seem to raise any money for roads ourselves. Now our federal hand out just may go away.

Well that's about it for now. Stay tuned for more Road Kill News, where YOU decide if it's really worth the trouble. There is bound to be plenty more.


Drive Careful,
Will

Whats So Funny About Potholes ? Satire and Irony

What do you think is funny? Everybody has their opinion of what they think is funny. How about you?

I like both satire and irony. Both comedic forms require a certain amount of intellect and a large, rather robust sense of humor. Especially if the comedy is directed at you.

The above requirements certainly apply when you are directing your humor at others, more so if it is to make a point. If a person doesn't share your sense of what constitutes humor, so be it. That can actually be funny in itself. It's just that it would be nice if they did share your laugh.

Anyway, satire and irony can be very effective at making a point. That is why I use it - a lot. If people get it, congrats, you've made your point. If people don't get it, the people that do get it, get it even more.

Here are examples of one or the other lately in the news.

 

Mike Rowe, well known entertainer and spokesman, addressed those at the Mackinac Policy Conference last week. Irony? He's famous for his show "Dirty Jobs". And his latest gig is called SGDI, or "Somebody's Gotta Do It" on CNN. When talking about Lansing legislators, that's irony! Get it? Last year the Michigan legislators said in effect that fixing our roads was a 'Dirty Job' and instead dumped it on their constituents. When the people threw it back at them with the defeat of Proposal 1, the lawmakers got on Mike Rowe's new show so to speak, saying 'Somebody's Gotta Do It', and are now grudgingly taking up the task again. If you think all that is funny then you get the point. If you don't then the rest of us get the point even more. See where I'm going?

In my last blog post - Mackinac Policy Conference Begins - Will There Be Potholes? - I compared those at the the 2015 Mackinac Policy Conference, some may have thought just the Republicans, as people whose view of taxes is of as a steaming pile of horse manure on the streets Mackinac Island to be avoided at all "costs". Certainly no one would want to step in that. The comment and the cartoon in the post, well that is satire. I hope people reading it have a sense of humor. If not, that is actually funny too.

Now here are two examples of satire and irony combined: A Beer and a flavor of Ice Cream:

Pothole Stout - Brewery Vivant

Here is a beer released for a limited time last year, and hope will be available again, which obviously was crafted and packaged to make a point.

Michigan Pot Hole Ice Cream - Ashby’s Sterling Ice Cream

Either out of a sense of humor or sense of duty, the marketing director of the manufacturer, Dianna Tunison is quoted as saying "We first came up with the flavor and then talked about it as a team that we should donate 1 percent of our sales to the State of Michigan to help fix our pot holes," 

Now that is both funny and sad. Donating ice cream profits to pay for our lousy roads. Enough said. 

So, sometimes humor - satire and irony - are an effective and maybe only way to make a point. The down side is that these methods have to be used because reason and understanding are not working.

The condition of our terrible Michigan roads and infrastructure are sad. And so are our do-nothing Michigan legislators. Not much to say for the Governor either, when it comes to roads. So much for humor. Just sayin'.


Drive careful,
Will

Mackinac Policy Conference Begins - Will There Be Potholes?

UPDATE:

Well it's 2016 and another Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference - Woo Hoo !

"Expectations for real results in solid policy to benefit the state and its citizenry this year are slim. However the horses are thick on the island and so is the horse shit there, et al" --someone who know horse shit

So much for the Update.
____________________________________

Another work week begins now that the Memorial Day weekend of 2015 is over. Will the week bring a solution to our Michigan road problem?

To The Island !

Hitch up your horses, the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference gets underway on Mackinac Island this week.

It happens every year at the Grand Hotel.

You can bet a major subject to be discussed will be the failure of Proposal 1 and where the Michigan legislature will go from here to get to a Real Road Funding Solution. And what irony, Mackinaw island!

Snyder and his business allies on this island trip will no doubt try to convince the Republican lawmakers in attendance that they can and should put more than a billion dollars into roads, and keep it flowing. But there are going to be a lot of issues to dodge and get around, like steaming piles on the Mackinaw streets, before there can be results.

On the one hand you have governor Snyder, very much wanting to put Billions of dollars into a permanent road funding program. Snyder says polls have shown the people are open to some sort of new tax or tax increase if it goes to roads.

Then you have his Republican lawmakers, wanting to at all cost avoid those steaming piles of taxes. All they can think about is their dainty anti-tax constituents getting the vapors and passing out at the slightest hint of a smelly tax, and then forgetting them on re-election day.

And of course there are the Democrats in Lansing. Like any good farmer, they don't mind stepping in a pile of taxes, so long as there is something left on their shoes for them to spread over their constituents. Democratic support in the legislature is needed because they will have to make up an expected  Republican lack of votes. But they will want something in return, just like last year! Yet they are not always so welcome at the island conference. Last year, in fact, Snyder’s Democratic opponent for governor wasn’t even invited to take part in the event.

Suffice it to say that the island conference will be looking to its historical darling Snyder for leadership (though his attractiveness has declined in the last few years). And the center-right businesses will have a say on road funding. They are still giggling over the  Michigan Business Tax toss, and the giant Tax Cut for businesses handed to them not long ago, all packaged up pretty with a big bright bow. And lately the states businesses have been tearing open those presents like greedy four year old's on Christmas morning (so much for budget surplus for roads). Better roads for better business, right?

Well, Mackinaw island is a lot about history. The way things used to be. No cars. No car noise. No cars torn up from potholes. Just like the good old days. Let's hope the result of this conference will Not be a return to the bad old days of no road funding. 

Michigan Road Funding Of The Past

 

Oh, by the way, to get into the conference:  $2,150 for Chamber members and $2,925 for Future members. So I suspect I wont be there. Anyway, it seems I've been kicked out of the Grand Hotel in the past (speaking of history), and they may notice me. I'll be in the LP probably driving my car into another pothole no doubt.

Drive Careful, Will

All We Are Saying Is Give Mayors A Chance

"As state leaders drive around Plan B for how to fix Michigan roads, they need to bring to the table those people residents trust most and are looking to for solutions: mayors." - The Detroit News, May 20,2015

So how about it? Do you trust the mayor of your city? Can mayors come up with solutions to fix our lousy Michigan roads? Do you even know who the mayor of your city is?

Well I just read an article in the Detroit News by William Wild, the mayor of Westland, Michigan. He makes the point that while he and other city mayors supported Proposal 1, with money earmarked specifically for local communities, one reason it failed was because Michigan mayors were not really involved. He stated that Proposal 1 "did not have local leaders helping to craft the proposal or engaging them before rolling out the plan."

While he is right about the fact that mayors were generally not involved in crafting Prop. 1, I live in a township. I am not sure it would have made any difference if my township supervisor or clerk would have asked me to vote for Prop. 1 or had told me that he/she wrote some of it. I still did not like it and I made that decision all by myself. Good for me.

In fact, according to my township web site, the township "does not maintain any roads in the Township. Issues regarding chloride, paving and snowplowing should be directed to the Road Commission of Oakland County". So much for anyone in my city/township government having much pull when it comes to fixing roads.

A U.S. Conference of Mayors/Zogby poll explains that while American trust in elected leaders has declined, mayors rank higher among the public than the president, their governor, Congress and their state legislature.

As to whether state mayors should now be a part of the elusive Plan B, well so far not even the governor or the state legislature seems to be a part of it. Or what they are coming up with so far amounts to pipe dreams; a Republican state lawmaker plan to use projected growth in the state budget to fix Michigan’s roads is downright laughable.

"...the legislature is saying 'our economy is doing great, and it will fix the roads all by itself. Just you watch'. Makes me think an alternate reality exists in Lansing where economist and lawmakers (one Kevin Cotter in particular) float high above the States crappy infrastructure and voters expect nothing more than the pleasantness of fantasy induced smoke being blown up their ... - Will Branning commenting on Michigan Radio article.

In the end, if you and I want better roads in our great state of Michigan, no matter what your reason, then you and I are the only ones who will make that happen. Contact the Governor. Contact your state Representative. Contact the news outlets. Tell them what you want. Better Michigan roads! It's their job. It's in the Michigan constitution. It's the right thing to do. Amen.

Oh, and to really make things happen, why not order your "Fix Our Roads" bumper sticker today? Place one on the ass end of your vehicle and show it to all the people who can make a difference with our roads. Proceeds may or may not be used in the campaign to make a difference. Anyway, they are cheap but of quality materials and cute to boot.

Get Your Bumper Sticker Today !

Just click the photo, or go to the tab at the top of the page. Thanks a Lot!


Detroit News article: 
Mayors should be part of Plan B conversation


Drive Careful,
Will

Where For Art Thou Safe Roads Yes ?

Now that prop 1 has crashed in flames, where is the Safe Roads Yes campaign? 

Have they continued in the fight to get us "safe roads" ? Safe to say, they have not.

During the months before May 1st, I must have received about twenty robo calls from them. Saw and heard about 50 commercials. Each of these attempts to frighten and coerce me with deceptive arguments and outright threats to vote "Yes", but they simply made me laugh. Now what about the refuse left behind from this utter political failure ?